Old friends, new opportunities

Recent meetings enabled me to reconnect with the Kunihiro family. Some of you may remember Hideo Kunihiro who served as the challenge speaker at Mount Hermon Main Camp in the late 1980s. His nephew, Stephen, is a friend of mine who works in an interior city in the state of São Paulo. 

PJ and Stephen meeting in June 2013

He asked me if I had been in contact with his brother, Joseph in the city of São Paulo. I acknowledged that I hadn't seen Joseph in some twenty years. 

PJ and Joseph

The result of that conversation created an opportunity for me to follow up with Joseph and to learn that, in addition to being a surgeon, he was serving on the pastoral staff of the Christian Missionary Alliance Church in the Vila Ema section of São Paulo. 

Through his kind arrangement I was invited by the senior pastor to speak at the church on Sunday, August 18. What I discovered was a church that was very eager to learn about JEMS and about the short-term mission projects that JEMS is creating for Brazilian nationals to serve in other countries. In addition to bringing the morning message, I was able to share with them about JEMS interest in reaching out to the Nikkei community in Argentina. That community being approximately 85% of Okinawan descent.

As an interesting bit of coincidence, the Vila Ema church is predominantly of Okinawan descent as well. They showed a high level of interest in the possibilities of working together with JEMS in future short-term missions.

The pastoral staff, pictured below, was warm and welcoming.  Senior Pastor Artur and his wife, as well as Pastor Joseph and his wife.

Pr Artur and esposa

Pr Joseph and Marcia

Please pray that JEMS, through their local contacts in Brazil and by the work of the Holy Spirit, can encourage the Vila Ema church to organize and put together a team to serve the Lord in Argentina for perhaps two weeks in January.

Introducing Lowell Sue to Brazil

"Someone somewhere once wrote about traveling with musicians, but I don't remember what was said or who said it." - John Katagi 

I have been privileged to serve alongside Lowell Sue for the last nine days as we visited churches and various ministry leaders in seven South American cities.  It has been what Brazilians call "uma correria!"  (quite a race).  Beginning in São Paulo with pastors' meetings, we also had the opportunity to meet with various worship teams, children's ministries, dance groups, Kings Kids programs, in Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo states.

A meeting with the worship team and Salt ministry of Santo André Holiness Church yielded an impromptu worship time with Lowell and Brazilian Nikkei brother in Christ, Yukio.



In Campo Grande, we were blessed as the worship team sang a homegrown worship song for us.  These still photos convey only a part of the joy and exhuberance of this group.

Campo Grande group photo:

Traveling to São Paulo state, we were able to witness the arts ministry of the Pompeia church as they commemorated Father's Day.






Father's Day (August 11) was a blessed day as Pastor John was invited to preach in Portuguese (with Japanese translation) at the Free Methodist Church in the city of Marilia, followed by a full day of ministry.

Lowell led a workshop in the afternoon, then sang and shared at the evening worship service.  (with PJ providing translations in Portuguese).

We continued our research in the city of Bastos and finished our time in the city of Presidente Prudente.

Odaira Family, Bastos

Group in Presidente Prudente

We were tremendously blessed by the response and the openness of the churches, pastors and people we met.  

As Lowell returns to the USA, it is time to pray and reflect on next steps.  His purpose was to explore the possibilities of bringing Creative Arts teams to South America.  Now we will wait on the Lord for his orientation and leading. 

Thank you for your prayers!
Please remember me (Pastor John) as I continue my ministry here through the fourth week of September.

Hula comes to São Paulo state (not ULA, but HHHula)

God can use anyone and he can use any thing!

JEMS South America mission was blessed by the presence of Rianna on our Argentina-Brazil survey team.  She had been invited by the Bastos Holiness Church in São Paulo state to share a hula performance with the congregation during our visit there.  But along the way, we discovered that hula would be a wonderful tool to teach, to engage and to be the basis of ministry.

One of the first things to be taught was the word was spelled and pronounced, Hula, not Ula.  (The initial H is silent in Portuguese causing people to mispronounce the word).

An impromptu hula workshop in the city of Marília

The full hula performance in the city of Bastos (low definition video) and an opportunity to share testimony.

A high definition excerpt of the above hula presentation can be seen here:


Rianna was also invited to lead a hula workshop for a dance class in Bastos (2 videos)




Hula performance in Presidente Prudente.

Pompéia

Other performances and opportunities to share occurred in Tupã in São Paulo state . . .




and São Paulo's Bosque church.  

Bonus!  Presentation of poi balls (a form of dance from New Zealand) in Caraguatatuba.



While hula is a beautiful and graceful art form, it also offers a wonderful opportunity to express worship and adoration to the Lord.  Thank you, Rianna for sharing with the people of Brazil.  

My prayer is that the arts:  dance, theater, music and other art forms will become a part of the outreach of JEMS South America in the years to come.  2013 was a wonderful beginning.

Mission, music and the Spirit

JEMS Team 1 in front of the Casa Rosada, Presidential Palace - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The 2013 JEMS South America missions team launched its ministry on Monday, June 24. Leaving Los Angeles International Airport, the team traveled to São Paulo, Brazil and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina. After one week of ministry in Argentina, the team returned to Brazil for a one-week, six-city gospel team ministry in the state of São Paulo.

The team took along with it three songs that were to be the basis of its ministry and core theme. The songs were "Set a Fire"

  

"Jesus, Lord of Heaven" 


and "Oceans".  

At various times during the first two weeks of our mission, these songs would come to speak so clearly to our hearts and into the hearts of those to whom we ministered. There were times that these songs so resonated within us that they would cause us to weep. 

While there was certainly a spiritual component to our ministry, there was also a deeply emotional one as well. There were moments that we ourselves were beseeching God to set a fire in our souls, to find a faith without limits and borders, and to understand that he was leading us to take courage and to walk on oceans. And this team responded to God's invitation and calling to be stretched and to grow into a ministry much larger than ourselves. 

I was so blessed to be able to be a part of the social and Spirit-filled dynamic of this team. This energy and emotion made this Argentina-Brazil team one of the best with whom I have been privileged to serve.